West Coast Dreaming: The Upcoming Summer Roadtrip

I know. We are still in the dead of winter and here I am already talking about summer. But, you know, that’s how we do it. Wanderlust is a crazy, crazy thing. You set your mind and heart on the place where your finger landed on the map and it’s all wheels in motion from there to make it happen.

Truth is, we’ve had to cancel our plans for a West coast road trip once before, but 2013 is our year. Reservations have already been made, and tickets are “this close” to being purchased.

We are focusing our trip on natural destinations more than cities, though there are some cities we just won’t want to miss and I will be relying heavily on my West coast peeps for tips and suggestions.

Six months to go and already this is my brain on travel:

Images courtesy of each respective destination’s tourism site.

I have a few adventures in store before and after then too, but there’s no denying planning summer road trips is by far our favorite thing.

In 2008, we packed up the kids, the bottles, the diapers, the toddlers and pre-teen and drove over 2,560 miles one way from NYC to Missoula, MT.

In 2010, we packed up the family again and drove over 1,850 miles one way from NYC to Austin, TX with stops in New Orleans and other fabulous destinations. Now, our 2013 road trip map looks like this:

Excited for what’s to come!

A few tips:

Remember, it’s never too early to start planning your summer travel. If you are planning to visit any of the lovely national parks than now is the time to book!

Also? Expect the prices for those lodging options to be a little steeper than most lodging options along the way, cause you know, nature ain’t cheap, yo. Truth is, camping at these parts is pretty inexpensive, but camp spots go quickly (we had a hard time finding available spots) and we would be required to bring all our camping gear with us from the East coast.

Because we are flying to the West first, we are also renting a car. Better now than later to do that as well because you can actually still find some great deals on summer car rentals.

Do you have any travel plans for this coming summer? Where will your adventures take you this year?

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Carol is her happiest when on an adventure, either close to home or farther away. She's the mom to three fun boys and wife to a handsome Irish/Scot. She lives in New Jersey with her happy crew, but will always be a girl from Brooklyn. You can read her full profile here.

Eeeek! I'm so jealous. I'm ready for another long road trip. I've been wanting to take a Pacific NW trip for a while, but Europe might win for 2013 and the Pacific NW in 2014. I'm looking forward to reading about your adventures.